For each of the studies described below, what conclusions can

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For each of the studies described below, what conclusions can be reached? Are the researchers’ conclusions valid? Why or why not? What alternative explanations, if any, can there be for the research findings? Is the study high or low in internal validity? If you think there are problems with the study or the conclusions reached, how can the study be improved so that there are no flaws or so that alternative explanations can be ruled out? (Note: Some of these studies may not have any serious methodological flaws or alternative explanations.)

In addition to addressing these issues, evaluate each study in terms of its experimental realism, mundane realism, and ethics.

Taste TestThe owners of a soft-drink company believed that its product, Diet Duff’s, was better than its more popular competitor, Diet Smash. They decided to run a “blind taste test” in which individuals would taste some of each product without knowing which cup contained which drink. Two hundred randomly selected men and women from three different communities participated in the test. Each participant was seated at a table. A cup on the person’s left was labeled “Q” and contained six ounces of Diet Smash. A cup on the person’s right was labeled “M” and contained six ounces of Diet Duff’s. The participants, of course, were not told which drink was in which cup. Half of the time the participants were told to try the cup on the left first, and half of the time they were told to try the cup on the right first. The drinks in both cups were equally fresh and cold.

The results supported Diet Duff’s hopes: Diet Duff’s was preferred by 105 people, Diet Smash was preferred by 84 people, and 11 people could not indicate a preference between the two drinks. Diet Duff’s began an advertisement campaign stating that in a blind taste test, more people preferred Diet Duff’s than Diet Smash.

I think the primary problem with this experiment design is that the experiment is not double-blind. Since the researcher knows which drink is which, they might subtly cue the participants to "prefer" one drink or the other. There may also be some effects from having the experimental drink always on the right. Finally, the labels could be a problem. Subjects might interpret the labels as being meaningful (e.g. "M" is a more common letter and might be "preferred" to the choice labelled "Q").

To make the experiment more meaningful, the cups should be unlabelled with respect to the subject (perhaps the label could be hidden on the bottom of the cup). The experimenter should not know which drink is which. One experimenter should pour and tell the second where to put the cups, and the other experimenter should deal with the subjects. The two drinks should be randomly placed on either the left or the right.

The experiment is low in mundane realism (because we don't normally directly compare soft drinks; we drink them with food or in social settings). For example, a soda might taste fine in a 6 oz pour but be terrible after 16 oz. The experiment is high in experimental realism. People should be able to identify which drink tastes better with reasonable accuracy, though the ordering will make a difference. The study has no ethical problems as there is little potential for harm and no deception.

thank you so much! Can you help me on the next one. I will pay extra, im just totally stuck on these two!

For each of the studies described below, what conclusions can be reached? Are the researchers’ conclusions valid? Why or why not? What alternative explanations, if any, can there be for the research findings? Is the study high or low in internal validity? If you think there are problems with the study or the conclusions reached, how can the study be improved so that there are no flaws or so that alternative explanations can be ruled out? methodological flaws or alternative explanations.)

In addition to addressing these issues, evaluate each study in terms of its experimental realism, mundane realism, and ethics.

Political Attitudes

Some researchers were concerned with what they believed to be an increasing polarization in the political attitudes of Americans. They wondered if people who are extreme conservatives and people who are extreme liberals might become less extreme if they could spend some time imagining themselves taking the opposite position. They speculated that such role playing might enable people to understand arguments they had previously refused to consider and to empathize with the fears and hopes of people they had previously rejected as ignorant or selfish.

To test this idea the researchers asked 500 adults to complete a questionnaire that measured their political attitudes. From this group, they then selected 60 people who scored very high on conservatism and 60 people who scored very high on liberalism to participate in the role-playing tasks. One of these tasks consisted of asking the conservatives to write a good, logical, and impassioned essay arguing in favor of some liberal policies, and asking the liberals to do the same for some conservative policies. Four weeks later, these 120 participants were given the same questionnaire that they had been given initially. The researchers found that, on average, the conservatives had become more liberal and the liberals had become more conservative. The researchers concluded that role playing causes extreme conservatives and liberals to become more moderate in their positions and more understanding of the other side.

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